Do you feel like I have posted a lot of soccer posts recently? It's probably because soccer takes up a good portion of my Saturdays. And since I had the fancy camera to play with, I had to take photos of what I could!
I may complain a little bit about how much time I spend with soccer, but at least the boys really seem to like it. Though if I had to be 100% honest, I think Henry likes the fact he gets some iPad playtime when he's not actively playing soccer. (He's no fool!)
When I posted a photo of the new dome last time, I realized the 80mm lens didn't let me show much of the space. So I brought along the 20mm today to show you the arena. It's clearly much smaller than the old dome, but we like it! Also, you can see the dark blue on the back side that loves to make my photos challenging...
Fortunately for me, this time when we were in the wrong spot and got to move to the front of the dome for practice. I think there is an app you can actually check the spot you are playing in ahead of time, but I have never remembered. In my defense, our coach was gone this week and none of us knew where we were supposed to be. We finally found the right spot - the blue "candy canes" were letting us join in with them. Thomas seems very confused as to why they are sitting down listening instead of kicking the ball.
This coach definitely had a different style of practice than Thomas' usual coach. The kids all went along with the new "techniques" he had them try out. Not really sure what pushing the ball with your head is supposed to teach them, but it sure was fun to watch!
The crab walking the ball backwards to the coach might have been my favorite though!
Thomas was pretty excited about being asked to help make a tunnel for all of the other players to kick their ball through.
The Candy Canes have always had a blue Candy Cane on their team since the first day, so the red & white stripes were severely outnumbered by the blue striped shirts. So instead, everyone got mesh jerseys to wear over their normal kit. I was muttering "not yellow, not yellow" under my breath when they were handing them out and mom thought it was hysterical Thomas got yellow. It's not my favorite color in photographs, ok??
Also, why is he doing his hand on the hip thing again? The last few weeks he has been running with his hand on his hip. He doesn't seem to realize he is doing it, so he can't explain why this is a new thing. A mystery!
Not really sure what this kid is doing, but I am 100% sure that is not a legal move. And way to turn on a fellow Candy Cane just because they are wearing a different color today! ;)
Also notice Thomas' yellow jersey is nicely tucked in now. At his first water break, he asked me to tuck the yellow jersey in because he didn't like the way it felt on his arm. I guess the mesh is a little scratchy.
Look at him scoring a goal! Go Thomas! I may have missed the first goal he scored because I was looking something up on my phone for my mom. And she got a video where you can see him score the goal and his mom clearly not noticing. Thanks Nonni...
But I got this one! :)
Finally it was time for Kiddie Soccer! I tried to get a few good photos of Henry before it actually started because lugging the lens around while chasing him was not going to be very fun...
Lucky for me, Nonni stepped in and offered to help. Henry, of course, immediately darted across the stadium and she had to chase him down. He clearly thought this was the best game ever!
He did eventually get interested in kicking the ball. I'll give him this - he does love kicking into the goal. And while he looks like he isn't paying attention to the coach 75% of the time, he usually does exactly what the coach told them to do. Sneaky, Henry...
This is the second time I bought him this style of shoe because it is so easy to put on his slightly pudgy feet. But I obviously forgot they didn't always stay fastened. Kiddie Soccer has definitely reminded me of that flaw. Thankfully he's pretty good at fixing them!
Look at that intensity! We spend so much time telling them not to use their hands while playing soccer that they all get super excited when the coach tells them to pick up their ball and run with it. :)
Since they changed the time of the practices by an hour, Henry always starts to get tired before it is actually over. Usually he gets a little crazy when he is tired, but sometimes he just wants hugs. Nonni was more than happy to give him hugs. Pretty much the most adorable photo from the whole day too, huh?
Overall the fancy camera did pretty good in the dome, but it's just too dark in there for amazing photos. I just have to get used to struggling with the ISO for photos until soccer moves back outside. Then I just have to worry about *too* much light! :)